About Yossi Alpher

Yossi Alpher is a former Mossad official and former director of
the Jaffee Centre for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University. Until recently
he co-edited bitterlemons.net. He is the author of No End of Conflict: Rethinking Israel-Palestine (forthcoming April 2016, Rowman & Littlefield, USA).

Anti-Semitic acts in Europe reinforced the perception
that the issue was extremist hatred of Jews per se. At the same time, prominent
Egyptian and even Saudi spokespersons were openly encouraging of the Israeli
war effort, the US was supportive, EU foreign ministers endorsed demilitarising
the Gaza Strip. But to what end?

In the short term the Ukraine/Crimea crisis adds momentum to Russia’s drive to reassert its superpower presence and influence in the Middle East, and reinforces the regional perception, whether justified or not, of US withdrawal and hesitation.

The leading Palestinian factions, Fatah and Hamas, signed a declaration in Doha on 5 February 2012 that committed them to work together. It promises to be a significant moment for Israel and the west too, says Yossi Alpher.

The flaws of the earlier Israel-Palestine peace process  ambiguity, phasing, lack of trust  consigned it to failure. The chances of its successor, the current roadmap, would benefit from a realistic appraisal that provides room for each side to move away from violence, restore peaceful relations  and, with international help, find that their paths converge.

Israeli Yossi Alpher and Palestinian Ghassan Khatib have each played a part in their nations politics. Now Alpher runs the NGO Political Security Domain and Khatib heads up the Jerusalem Media and Communications Centre. Together they run Bitterlemons, a website dedicated to better understanding of the Middle East situation. Here they give their very different views.

World Forum for Democracy 2017

This year, the theme is ‘populism’. Is the problem fake news or fake democracy? What media, what political parties, what politicians do we need to re-connect with citizens and make informed choices in 21st century democracy?

Civil Society Futures is a national conversation about how English civil society can flourish in a fast changing world.Come and add your voice»

Full coverage of the non-hierarchical conference held in Barcelona on 18-22 June 2017.